Why do Christians believe life begins at conception?

Question

Is there a scriptural reference? I’m not saying it is right or wrong, I just want to know where it comes from. It seems that it would be more of a personal opinion than a religious doctrine. Does the text address the pre-natal children of God?

OK Docs. I understand the whole fertilization process and the dictionary definition of life and yada yada yada. That's elementary. I'm looking for answers that are a little more existential in nature. We are in Religion & Spirituality, after all.

Answer 1

It allows them to make scapegoats of others and to convince themselves that they're nobly working to save lives.

Of course in the process, that belief has caused more abortions than anything else other than the religious stances against birth control and sex education. It causes people to tell lies like the one that Jed (above) told, and keeps the anti-abortion movement from joining in rational action to eliminate the need for brutal late-term abortions.
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Claiming that science proves that it's a new life at conception is like claiming that science proves that the hurricane back in 1995 was named "Katrina".

Science doesn't prove what something's name is, folks. When you claim that it does, you're either lying or repeating a lie. Why do you think the antiabortionists have to lie so much to support their position? Don't you think that tells you something about the moral standing of that position?

Answer 2

How do we know life begins at conception? The Bible tells us so. There is a Greek word, “brephos,” which is found eight times in the New Testament. Thayer's Greek Lexicon says it refers to “an unborn child, embryo, fetus, a newborn child, an infant, a baby.” It refers to the child in the womb, as well as to the child outside the womb. There is no distinction.

In Luke 1:15, John was said to be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. "And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit”(Luke 1:41). Here was the meeting of Mary and Elisabeth. The angel had appeared to Mary and told her that she would conceive, "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus” (Luke 1:31). Then in verses 36 and 37 we read: "Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible." Then verses 39 and 40: "Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth." These are the verses leading up to the verse 41 previously quoted which says that the babe “leaped in her womb.” The babe (the “brephos”) leaped in her womb! That is a significant statement. Yes, life begins at conception and not at birth.

Answer 3

One ought to first understand what a soul is and what a spirit is? Many have confidence that those words advise some thing invisible and immortal that exists interior us. they think of that at death this invisible area of a human leaves the physique and lives on. through fact this perception is so known, many are shocked to verify that it is not in any respect what the Bible teaches. What, then, is the soul, and what's the spirit, in accordance to God’s be conscious? From the passage which you used, Gen 2:7, it for sure says that adam became a residing soul. It would not say that adam became "given" a soul. It skill then that Adam himself is a soul. In Romans 13:a million, we study that each and every soul could desire to be in subjection to greater powers or authority, for sure soul refers to human beings themselves, to no longer some invisible area of human. What with reference to the spirit? Psalms 104:29 explains that if the spirit is taken away one expires, same experience with James 2:26 "a physique w/o a spirit is ineffective." for sure then spirit is a existence rigidity which God breath into Adam to alter right into a residing soul. The soul then is us ourselves, our physique. Then the spirit is the only that makes stay.

Answer 4

Psalm 139

Answer 5

No, the texts don't address it, really, other than the part where it says that God knew us while we were in our mother's womb.

However, *I* believe life begins at conception because the baby (and YES, it is a baby) has a heartbeat and brain waves by the time the mother-to-be knows she's pregnant. The baby also has his or her own blood type, and his or her organs are already forming.
Even at six weeks, you can tell it's a baby, and it's most DEFINITELY alive.
This is according to science, not religion. And EVERYONE knows that science is fact.

Answer 6

>>It seems that it would be more of a personal opinion than a religious doctrine.<<

Good gravy, it is a scientific fact that a new life begins at fertilization:

Fertilization: Beginning a new organism

Fertilization is the process whereby two sex cells (gametes) fuse together to create a new individual with genetic potentials derived from both parents. Fertilization accomplishes two separate ends: sex (the combining of genes derived from the two parents) and reproduction (the creation of new organisms). Thus, the first function of fertilization is to transmit genes from parent to offspring, and the second is to initiate in the egg cytoplasm those reactions that permit development to proceed. -- Developmental Biology, sixth edition
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Search&db=books&doptcmdl=GenBookHL&term=fertilization+AND+dbio%5Bbook%5D+AND+131388%5Buid%5D&rid=dbio.chapter.1334

Answer 7

Read Psalm 139

Answer 8

Because it actually does; ask any honest biologist that does not have a hidden political agenda to try to justify another point where life begins?

Answer 9

There is a passage in Psalms that says you knit me together in my mother's womb (something to that effect). Goes on to say before I was born, your eyes saw my unformed body. "All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be."

If life doesn't begin until birth, what's being knit together and what is being seen?

Answer 10

I'm not Christian, but I believe life begins at conception.. Not because of scripture necessarily, but by scientific evidence.The cells are multiplying as soon as conception....And yes, science proves it.